Abstract

Centrality definition in A + A collisions at colliders such as RHIC and LHC suffers from a correlated systematic uncertainty caused by the efficiency of detecting a p + p collision (50 ± 5% for PHENIX at RHIC). In A + A collisions where centrality is measured by the number of nucleon collisions, N coll, or the number of nucleon participants, N part, or the number of constituent quark participants, N qp, the error in the efficiency of the primary interaction trigger (Beam–Beam Counters) for a p + p collision leads to a correlated systematic uncertainty in N part, N coll or N qp which reduces binomially as the A + A collisions become more central. If this is not correctly accounted for in projections of A + A to p + p collisions, then mistaken conclusions can result. Finally, a recent example is presented in whether the mid-rapidity charged multiplicity per constituent quark participant d(N ch/dη)/N qp in Au + Au at RHIC was the same as the value in p + p collisions.

@article{osti_1425125,
title = {Constituent quarks and systematic errors in mid-rapidity charged multiplicity dNch/dη distributions},
author = {Tannenbaum, M. J.},
abstractNote = {Centrality definition in A + A collisions at colliders such as RHIC and LHC suffers from a correlated systematic uncertainty caused by the efficiency of detecting a p + p collision (50 ± 5% for PHENIX at RHIC). In A + A collisions where centrality is measured by the number of nucleon collisions, Ncoll, or the number of nucleon participants, Npart, or the number of constituent quark participants, Nqp, the error in the efficiency of the primary interaction trigger (Beam–Beam Counters) for a p + p collision leads to a correlated systematic uncertainty in Npart, Ncoll or Nqp which reduces binomially as the A + A collisions become more central. If this is not correctly accounted for in projections of A + A to p + p collisions, then mistaken conclusions can result. Finally, a recent example is presented in whether the mid-rapidity charged multiplicity per constituent quark participant d(Nch/dη)/Nqp in Au + Au at RHIC was the same as the value in p + p collisions.},
doi = {10.1142/S021773231830001X},
journal = {Modern Physics Letters A},
number = 01,
volume = 33,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {1}
}

Measurements of midrapidity charged-particle multiplicity distributions, dN ch/dη, and midrapidity transverse-energy distributions, dE T/dη, are presented for a variety of collision systems and energies. Included are distributions for Au+Au collisions at √s NN=200, 130, 62.4, 39, 27, 19.6, 14.5, and 7.7 GeV, Cu+Cu collisions at √s NN=200 and 62.4 GeV, Cu+Au collisions at √s NN=200 GeV, U+U collisions at√s NN=193 GeV, d+Au collisions at √s NN=200 GeV, He3+Au collisions at √s NN=200 GeV, and p+p collisions at √s NN=200 GeV. We present centrality-dependent distributions at midrapidity in terms of the number of nucleon participants, N part, and the number ofmore » constituent quark participants, N qp. For all A+A collisions down to √s NN=7.7 GeV, we observed that the midrapidity data are better described by scaling with N qp than scaling with N part. Finally, our estimates of the Bjorken energy density, ε BJ, and the ratio of dE T/dη to dN ch/dη are presented, the latter of which is seen to be constant as a function of centrality for all systems.« less

RHIC introduced the method of hard scattering of partons as an in-situ probe of the the medium produced in A+A collisions. A suppression, R AA ≈ 0.2 relative to binary-scaling, was discovered for π⁰ production in the range 5 < ρ T < 20 GeV/c in central Au+Au collisions at √s NN = 200 GeV, and surprisingly also for single-electrons from the decay of heavy quarks. Both these results have been confirmed in Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC at √s NN = 2.76 TeV. Interestingly, in this ρ T range the LHC results for pions nearly overlap the RHIC results.more » Thus, due to the flatter spectrum, the energy loss in the medium at LHC in this ρ T range must be ~ 40% larger than at RHIC. Unique at the LHC are the beautiful measurements of the fractional transverse momentum imbalance 1 – (ρ-carot T2/ρ-carot T1) of di-jets in Pb+Pb collisions. At the Utrecht meeting in 2011, I corrected for the fractional imbalance of di-jets with the same cuts in p-p collisions and showed that the relative fractional jet imbalance in Pb+Pb/p-p is ≈ 15% for jets with 120 < ρ-carot T1 < 360 GeV/c. CMS later confirmed this much smaller imbalance compared to the same quantity derived from two-particle correlations of di-jet fragments at RHIC corresponding to ρ-carot T jet ≈ 10 – 20 GeV/c, which appear to show a much larger fractional jet imbalance ≈ 45% in this lower ρ-carot T range. The variation of apparent energy loss in the medium as a function of both ρ T and √s NN is striking and presents a challenge to both theory and experiment for improved understanding. There are many other such unresolved issues, for instance, the absence of evidence for a q-carot effect, due to momentum transferred to the medium by outgoing partons, which would widen the away-side di-jet and di-hadron correlations in a similar fashion as the k T-effect. Another issue well known from experiments at the CERN ISR, SpS and SpS collider is that parton-parton hard-collisions make negligible contribution to multiplicity or transverse energy production in p-p collisions–soft particles, with ρ T < 2 GeV/c, predominate. Thus an apparent hard scattering component for A+A multiplicity distributions based on a popular formula, dN AAch/dη = [(1 - x) (N part)dN ppch/dη2 + x (N colldN ppch/dη], seems to be an unphysical way to understand the deviation from N part scaling. Based on recent p-p and d+A measurements, a more physical way is presented along with several other stimulating results and ideas from recent d+Au (p+Pb) measurements.« less

We present the results of an elliptic flow, v{sub 2}, analysis of Cu+Cu collisions recorded with the STAR detector at RHIC at {radical}s{sub NN} = 62.4 and 200 GeV. Elliptic flow as a function of transverse momentum, v{sub 2}(p{sub T}), is reported for different collision centralities for charged hadrons h{sup {+-}}, and strangeness containing hadrons K{sub S}{sup 0}, {Lambda}, {Xi}, {phi} in the midrapidity region |{eta}| < 1.0. Significant reduction in systematic uncertainty of the measurement due to non-flow effects has been achieved by correlating particles at midrapidity, |{eta}| < 1.0, with those at forward rapidity, 2.5 < |{eta}| <more » 4.0. We also present azimuthal correlations in p+p collisions at {radical}s = 200 GeV to help estimating non-flow effects. To study the system-size dependence of elliptic flow, we present a detailed comparison with previously published results from Au+Au collisions at {radical}s{sub NN} = 200 GeV. We observe that v{sub 2}(p{sub T}) of strange hadrons has similar scaling properties as were first observed in Au+Au collisions, i.e.: (i) at low transverse momenta, p{sub T} < 2 GeV/c, v{sub 2} scales with transverse kinetic energy, m{sub T} - m, and (ii) at intermediate p{sub T}, 2 < p{sub T} < 4 GeV/c, it scales with the number of constituent quarks, n{sub q}. We have found that ideal hydrodynamic calculations fail to reproduce the centrality dependence of v{sub 2}(p{sub T}) for K{sub S}{sup 0} and {Lambda}. Eccentricity scaled v{sub 2} values, v{sub 2}/{var_epsilon}, are larger in more central collisions, suggesting stronger collective flow develops in more central collisions. The comparison with Au+Au collisions which go further in density shows v{sub 2}/{var_epsilon} depend on the system size, number of participants N{sub part}. This indicates that the ideal hydrodynamic limit is not reached in Cu+Cu collisions, presumably because the assumption of thermalization is not attained.« less

Here, several methods of generating three constituent quarks in a nucleon are evaluated which explicitly maintain the nucleon's center of mass and desired radial distribution and can be used within Monte Carlo Glauber frameworks. The geometric models provided by each method are used to generate distributions over the number of constituent quark participants ( Nqp) in p+p,d+Au, and Au+Au collisions. The results are compared with each other and to a previous result of Nqp calculations, without this explicit constraint, used in measurements of √S NN = 200 GeV p+p,d+Au, and Au+Au collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ionmore » Collider.« less

The multiparticle production results from A+A and p(p-bar)+p collisions have been compared based on the number of nucleon participants and the number of constituent quark (parton) participants. In both normalizations, we observe that the charged particle densities in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions are similar for both {radical}(s{sub NN}) = 62.4 and 200 GeV. This implies that in symmetric nucleus-nucleus collisions the charged particle density does not depend on the size of the two colliding nuclei but only on the collision energy. In the nucleon participants framework, the particle density at mid-rapidity as well as in the limiting fragmentation region frommore » A+A collisions are higher than those of p(p-bar)+p collisions at the same energy. Also the integrated total charged particle in A+A collisions as a function of number nucleon participants is higher than p(p-bar)+p collisions at the same energy indicating that there is no smooth transition between peripheral A+A and nucleon-nucleon collisions. However, when the comparison is made in the constituent quarks framework, A+A and p(p-bar)+p collisions exhibit a striking degree of agreement. The observations presented in this paper imply that the number of constituent quark pairs participating in the collision controls the particle production. One may therefore conjecture that the initial states A+A and p+p collisions are similar when the partonic considerations are used in normalization. Another interesting result is that there is an overall factorization of dNch/d{eta} shapes as a function of collision centrality between Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at the same energy, {radical}(s{sub NN}) = 200 GeV.« less